CLST; Week 3 Lecture 9 New Man, Magistrates.docx

2
Pages

68
Views

Unlock Document

School

Queen's University

Department

Classical Studies

Course

CLST 101

Professor

Christina Zaccagnino

Semester

Winter

Description

Nobilis: noble novus homo: new man
 There were very important families that generally gave magistrates to the city of Rome, has
nothing to do with the fact of being Patrician or plebians, as plebian were allowed to be
consuls
 The problem became bigger after the conquest of Italy and the social war, more people
who had Roman citizenship who would like to become magistrates in Rome
 Start to have novi homines, they are new persons who tried to hold important offices in
Rome, especially the consulship, which was held generally by members of noble families
 Cicero was a novi homines, was born outside of Rome, another city in Italy
 To keep in the same families, gens, the offices, was related to the Cult of Ancestors
Romans had, statue of a man, magistrate, toga, holding 2 busts, masks of ancestors,
generally held in wooden shrines in the house, man proudly showing his ancestors, we
know that Romans also used to have images of their ancestors and masks of their
ancestors on their face during procession of funeral, meant to keep link between past and
present
 Important to show all lineage of their ancestors, very proud to have many members of
their family holding important offices, grown up with the idea to become a consul in their
adulthood, tried to prevent other people, "new men" from holding these important
positions
2nd and 1st century BCE Magistrates
 cursus honorum: race for honours, very important for their careers, show what they did
in the past
 Problem: little by little, more people who had the right to run for offices, nobles and new
men, was an accessory to give a kind of order
 After 197 BCE consulship after holding praetorship, to avoid some figures to gain so much
power in such a short period of time, problem